FOOD DIARY: Oscillate Wildly

Where: Oscillate Wildly
When: 15 March, 2016
Price: $120pp, 8 courses + snacks

Oscillate Wildly is so unassuming, you could easily walk past it. In fact, when we turned up to the restaurant, one of my friends thought it was closed. I only know about the place because it is right next to Black Star Pastry in Newtown, which often has such a long waiting line that I decided to pass the time reading the Oscillate Wildly menu and thought "dang, I need to go to there."

So I rustled up some friends — degustation newbies, at that — and we had some good food and good times.

Here's what we ate:


I'll be real with you: I have forgotten what most of this tastes like. It was my first time sharing this kind of meal with a large group of friends, and a lot of it was spent catching up. I'll try and note opinions where I can remember them.

 gin and tonic

an interesting presentation of half of my favourite drink. basically a gin and tonic-soaked bamboo shoot sat in ice to keep it cool. I particularly enjoyed chewing the bamboo.

 pork crackling

saaaaaalt! little bit barbequey.

caesar salad 

it didn't look appetising at first, but inside that leaf was a creamy, bacony delight. five stars, the real MVP of the snack selection.

bread!

prawn, potato, amaranth 

 beetroot, blackberry, tarragon

 shiitake, squid, dashi

one of my favourite dishes. I am a sucker for mushrooms.

(close up)

I loved it this much.

 foie, cauliflower, maple

the foie gras impressed some of my friends, but it was only okay for me. I enjoyed the crunch of the cauliflower.

 whiting, radish, ink

to be honest, the radish was the best part of this dish, and you can't even see it in this photo!

 beef, soy, leek

possibly the best beef I have ever eaten. a friend who had recently visited japan compared it to kobe beef; I have never eaten kobe beef, but I can't imagine she is wrong. we were told the beef had a level 9 marbling, which I just looked up, and it is the highest marbling beef can have. you can definitely tell.

pineapple, lime, bitters

 burnt white chocolate, miso, sesame

the white chocolate shards were melt-in-your-mouth, and not overly sweet, and the miso and sesame lent the dessert a savoury element that made this my favourite dessert. 

chocolate truffles, cassis jelly

unexpected dessert! I really liked the cassis jelly; the truffles were standard.

Sorry for the half-assed food diary; I honestly did have a good time, and it was an impressive first tasting menu experience for my friends. One small caveat: the meal went on for four hours. Four hours! For eight courses plus snacks! It's a bit long, is what I'm saying, Oscillate Wildly.

Still, the space was really intimate and great for catching up with good friends — a fluke, on my part, but one that I am grateful for — so the lulls between courses was thankfully filled with excellent conversation. The staff was very friendly and helpful: one of my friends was struggling to name the band that was playing over the restaurant speakers. A server leaned down and whispered "it's The Avalanches".

Now that's service.